About three hours later, in Boxford, a 54-year-old Bradford woman suffered life-threatening injuries in a wrong-way crash that shut down both directions of traffic on Interstate 95 for about an hour.
State Police are investigating what caused the woman, who was driving northbound in a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee, to cross the I-95 median into the southbound lanes, and then collide head-on with another vehicle that was traveling southbound, State Police said.
The three-vehicle crash occurred just north of Exit 52 near Topsfield Road in Boxford about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
A preliminary investigation found that when the Jeep driver crossed the median into the southbound lanes, she sideswiped a 2018 Nissan Altima driven by a 68-year-old man from Naples, Florida, and then struck a 2015 Toyota Corolla driven by a 32-year-old man from Everett.
With traffic shut down in both directions, a MedFlight landed on the busy road to transport the Jeep driver to a Boston hospital. She has life-threatening injuries.
The driver of the Toyota and a passenger of the Nissan suffered minor injuries and were both transported to Beverly Hospital. The driver of the Nissan was not injured.
All traffic lanes were reopened in Boxford at 4:10 p.m.
The Boxford police and fire departments and Mass DOT assisted at the scene.